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What happens when animals meet their robot counterparts?

Boston Dynamics has created a whole host of terrifying automatons -- Atlas, which can survive intense human bullying, Ian, which can kickbox, and BigDog, which is, rather predictably, a big robotic dog. They're all designed to withstand extreme, often military, environments. But what happens when they meet their human, or animal, counterparts?

When Atlas met its makers, it was a rather violent affair. But when BigDog met a real dog -- Spot, a terrier owned by Android co-founder Andy Rubin -- dog and robot alike seemed more confused than angry.

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But what happened when other animals met their robotic selves?

RoboHawks vs Hawks

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Hawks may look majestic, but they can be a real nuisance for those working in airports, farms or landfills. But according to WIRED US, there's now a more sophisticated way of getting rid of them than scarecrows.

Robirds is a "line of robotic birds of prey", designed by Dutch physicist Nico Nijenhuis, that tricks birds of prey into staying away from forbidden areas. The birds think they're about to be attacked by a rival and stay away, unaware of the fact their rivals are simply 3D-printed approximations.

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Cats vs Robot Cats

Hasbro's robot cats were designed to provide "comfort, companionship and fun" to the elderly. Just like real cats they have fur, they purr and meow, and are even fitted with sensors so they respond to being petted just like a normal cat. So what happened when one of these robot cats met a real life cat?

Not much, as it happens.

Reactions from the real cats range from non-plussed to actively unimpressed. Overwhelmingly and unsurprisingly, though, the cats reacted with apathy.

Bullying rats

Takanishi Lab @ Waseda University

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Robot/animal relations aren't always this cordial. One study, conducted by researchers at Waseda University in Tokyo, used a 24cm robotic rat to attack real rats. Why? To make them depressed.

The depression imposed upon many lab rats is artificial -- they're forced to swim in a tank for hours and hours, for example, or given electric shocks. This means that antidepressants being tested on them may not work in the same way as they would in humans.

So, to provoke the rats into genuine depression, they were attacked by robots. It may seem like needless sadism, but the researchers claim that it's a vital part of understanding depression.